something real
by momtara
Summary: "We've all gotta find something real." / Or, in which the Guardian of earth falls in love with the leader of the rebellion. A series of canon-compliant Cornelia x Caleb drabbles that no one asked for.
1. fight

Cornelia was never the combative type. She shrunk away from the ball in gym class, and her exercise routine consisted of scouring the rails for bargains at the mall or spiraling gracefully on the ice rink. While her hot-headed conviction had gotten her into an impressive amount of quarrels, it had never occurred to Cornelia to resort to violence.

Today is different. In this other dimension with its dark dungeons, scaly creatures, and evil princes, she is no longer Cornelia; stripped of herself, she is merely the Guardian of earth. She has never felt more powerful than when the earth flows to her fingertips, but she knows what she is now — an object, an instrument, a Guardian — as she topples rubble over the palace guards with the sway of her arms.

Still, she feels like herself when she meets him. The leader of the rebellion is brave and self-sacrificing with all the social skills of a hopeless recluse. Caleb runs to distract their enemies with a parting smile and, upon this simple quirk of his lips, the fight in her is ignited and she is herself for as long as her heart pumps the earth through her veins.

* * *

a/n: hello everyone! thank you for joining me in my adoration of these two. in short, i'm writing a couple of cxc drabbles of around the above length because i love them a ridiculous amount. most of these reference particular episodes, but this will hopefully be clear in reading. author's notes will often include music recs bc im just that kinda gal. did i listen to 'fight for me' from the heathers soundtrack while writing this? little bit.

i love reviews a whole bunch and again, bless you for reading.

big love,

A xxx


	2. open

open

ˈəʊp(ə)n/

adjective

not concealing one's thoughts or feelings; frank and communicative.

"Told you I could have fun." Caleb grimaces before setting his hot chocolate down by the fireplace. He wonders if everything at this ski resort will be as unappetising, and is thankful that at least the cocoa is warm.

"Welcome to Earth," Cornelia says with a wink, taking a sip from her own mug.

A thought occurs to him. "What do you think you'd be doing if you were on Meridian?"

"Like, if I were born there?" Caleb nods. "Hmm...do you have personal shoppers on the metaworld? Or stylists! I could totally give that Lord Cedric some new threads."

"I'm serious!" he insists, but her expression is earnest. "Okay...so you wouldn't join the rebellion."

"Of course I would, silly! I could be a stylist to giant lizards on the side. Why do you ask?" Caleb shrugs. Her gaze is suddenly penetrating, and he sees his reflection in her eyes. "You feel guilty that you're having fun here, instead of being with the rebels."

Caleb wonders when he became so transparent. "How can you tell?"

Her expression changes when she casts her eyes away. Cornelia's walls are up again, but she is not quick enough; he has already seen the storm of sincerity in her ocean eyes, felt the tug of her lips as they curve into a smile, known what her understanding feels like long enough to wonder if love is different on planet Earth.


	3. last

"Caleb, is something the matter?"

He pouts discernibly and continues to sharpen his sword, eye on the horizon. Of course, the waning sun skimming the earth only makes him think of… "Course not. Why?"

Julian recognises the telltale signs in his son and, with a fond smile, sits next to him on the patch of grass. "You just seem a little...distracted recently, is all." Caleb merely shrugs in response. "It's the girl, isn't it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He is barely stubborn enough to hide the smile threatening on his lips.

"You know, I was your age I when I met your mother—"

"Father, I really don't want to hear this…" A beat, and Caleb realises he is fooling no one, least of all himself. "I'm leading a rebellion! I'm not supposed to fall in love."

Julian wrings his hands together. "Love is seldom convenient, my son. I know that as well as anyone."

"You miss her," Caleb says. He wonders what it would be like for her to leave him to raise their only child, and shakes the thought away before it can evolve.

"Every day," Julian sighs. "She may be gone, but we still made something beautiful with that love, something that lasted long after she left." Caleb raises a brow. "We made you, son."

He has heeded the warnings before, been told not to look at the sun lest he go blind, but Caleb's eyes are drawn to the rays once more as they colour the earth with light, warm and golden and everlasting.

* * *

a/n: really hope i didnt botch julian's character here, but the series gave him about as much characterisation as a moist towelette. writers gotsta improvise, yo. psst: bloc party have a lovely little acoustic called 'this modern love' that i listened to when writing this.

did i mention i like reviews?

love,

A xxxx


	4. hope

Caleb had nearly forgotten how beautiful Meridian is in the daytime. The night here stretches almost endlessly, and he has spent more time as an outlaw on planet Earth than he would like. The soft breeze pulls the windmill that creaks as it spins, but all he can think about is his people. He has failed them.

"It's all my fault. What kind of leader am I?"

Cornelia is mere footsteps behind him. Though she tries to hide it, her golden heart is bigger than her ego. "You're a wonderful leader." Her voice lowers to a murmur. "You don't know how wonderful you are."

With a gasp, he turns to face her. She is taller in her Guardian form, reaching his height, and that is how he rationalises the way his eyes fall to her lips. Sometimes he thinks he would rather live in her blue eyes, underwater where everything is soft and surreal and peaceful all at once. Caleb takes her by the hand. He is drowning, drowning, drowning.

And then the others pass by and he is dragged back to this world again, this bleak, hateful world that has trapped his friends in dungeons and taken the light from his life. A world where young princesses are exploited, where children starve, where the people live under tyranny, where they have forgotten the meaning of the word 'hope'.

He steals a glance at Cornelia once more, and for the first time lets himself imagine a life after the war.


	5. together

She knows from the stubborn pout of his lip that he has something to say. "Spit it out, rebel boy!" Untwining her arms from around his neck to settle the stiff set of his shoulders, she holds his gaze, scrutinising and beckoning him to speak. "We haven't got much time, you know."

For once, he is silent. Cornelia rolls her eyes before she makes her way toward the second portal to Meridian. A grip on her wrist, and she knows she has him exactly where she wants him.

"I want to...be with you. Or however it is you do courtship Earth!"

His smile is heartbreakingly sincere and she could be selfish enough to take this moment and keep it for herself, wants to feel the touch of his hand and take the agitation plain on his face and never let it go. Hers, hers, hers.

"Cornelia?"

Hovering above him, he pulls her back down to the earth with his kiss and she could be anywhere in the infinite dimensions for how fast her head is spinning. But she is with him and they are about to end it all and they are just beginning, and she is where she is meant to be.

"I thought you'd never ask."


	6. unearth

They spin until her earthbound feet begin to slip towards the sky. In his kiss she tastes sweet victory, Meridian wine, something new and bright and youthful. It is a new beginning. The war is over. They had won, overcoming evil by the other's side and restoring a young queen to her birthright. At the corner of her eye she sees her dancing with the other Guardians, her wide-eyed people gazing in wonder.

Elyon has a kingdom now, but Cornelia has something better.

The earth is her element, and she knows she has made a mistake once she lifts her feet from the ground to get a better view of the water. It is only when she folds her legs under her that he speaks.

Cornelia should have kept to the earth. It isn't easy when he takes her and breaks down her hardness, her distance, her walls.

But she should have known better.

"What do you mean you're staying on Meridian?"


	7. rose

"Cornelia, what are you doing? Attack!"

When the nights stretch too long, when she is tired of mirrors and can be someone else with the flick of a wrist, when there is excitement in the secrecy and the new reflection staring back at her, it is easy for Cornelia to fall into Peter's arms. He may not have her wit or candor or passion like he does, but she can accept the ease of him when there is no one crossing dimensions for her.

"My powers betrayed me!"

She is sick to death of the quips and the quarrels and the comebacks. This game of attack-and-defense has been her only response to the grief that comes with the loss of him. But one of them slips. The facade falls.

"No, they're spectacular! Show me what you can do!"

She has forgotten what it feels like to hear softness from his lips, as she has forgotten the feeling of the earth reaching her fingertips.

"I'll show you spectacular!"

He cannot be as stubborn as her, not when he knows what she is capable of, not when his faith in her is as boundless as her immense power, not when he loves her more and more in the rare moments she is Cornelia around him. Of course, she disarms their enemies in an instant.

A red rose blooms around the hilt of his sword.

* * *

a/n: yall, this episode _kills_ me. its easily one of my fav cxc eps. was heavily inspired alabama shakes' 'dont wanna fight no more' in the writing process.

i love reviews and i love you a whole bunch for reading,

A xxx


	8. something real

He was a mistake from the beginning. It should have been love at first sight, lifelong romance a glance and a swoon away. The rebel boy was arrogant, standoffish, and just plain rude…but then there was kindness in his eyes, amber eyes that stayed fixed on her all the way back to Earth. From the moment she saw him he lived in her mind and chipped away at her walls.

If only she had not make the mistake of him. If only she had stayed away. If only she had kept her guard up. If only.

Finally, Cornelia drops to her knees in front of the castle. A sob rips through her chest. He is gone, and she barely notices when her friends wrap their arms around her, holding her hands and stroking her hair.

A flash of light, and he falls from the tear and lands mere steps away. She is on her feet before she can even register the movement. There is no one else in the infinite dimensions but them when she springs into his arms. She feels his grimace and the tension in his shoulders but his warmth, his smell, his everything is real.

When his name passes her lips, she knows it is enough to just be Cornelia.


	9. détente

There is a throbbing pain at the base of his skull, black and blue bruises marring his body, and scrapes on his elbows and knees. He knows he is going to fall again before he lands on the ice with a thud. And still he laughs like a child, like he isn't a boy made a man too soon by the anguish of war, like he hasn't met the business end of a blade or been locked behind bars more times than he can count, like he has always lived between four safe walls with two pairs of loving arms for protection.

Cornelia gathers him in her arms with a smile. Her cheeks are flushed with the cold, her blue eyes lit violet as she gracefully maneuvers the slippy terrain. He wonders how someone with such an attachment to the soil could love the ice so much, and accepts that this is another part of her he will never quite understand.

He sees them on Meridian's frozen ponds in the winter, coming to Earth to skate in the springtime, envisions them together a thousand times more. As she holds him steady, Caleb is grateful that he and the girl with the earth in her veins can learn to forgive.


	10. peace

"But...but you're okay?" Caleb asks, beckoning her to meet his gaze.

Cornelia had breathed his name before her heartbeat returned, and Elyon fell out of step behind her as she ignored the ache in her legs. Now she is with him as the sky drips with stars and Meridian's second moon begins to fall. For once, she seems immune to the changing of the earth as she explains, or tries to explain, how the Guardians became their elements.

"I don't know if I'll ever be okay again."

Her brain turns to steel wool when she clenches her fists to her temples There seems to be too little oxygen as her breath hitches, and sobs begin to shake her chest. All Cornelia can think of is becoming the still green damp earth, the sightless vision and soundless hearing and the endless echo in her brain as they grasped at themselves. The terror and the loss and the sheer nothingness seem to asphyxiate her. Weeds spring from beneath them as the ground shakes, and she only realises what is happening when a deep fissure cracks the earth.

"Caleb…"

He strokes her hair, and Cornelia forces herself to look at him. His eyes are green as ancient trees, his skin the colour of scorched earth, his jaw sharp like jagged rocks with rich brown hair the colour of her element. Caleb is as steady and reliable and unwavering as the earth, and she knows she has nothing to be afraid of.

"Let's get you inside, huh?"

They settle on the thick carpet in front of the castle's roaring fire. Cornelia ignores the rising sun as her eyes begin to drift close, and he starts to fall asleep, too, as she nestles into his shoulder. It is as good a time as any when his breathing starts to slow.

"I love you."

Caleb presses his lips to her forehead. "I love you, too."

* * *

a/n: ta-da! thatll be all. thank you so so much for reading this lil piece, my loves.

yall, this chapter was originally like. three times as long? im thinking of maybe stretching this one into a oneshot of like 1kish words, so if anyone is interested let me know! i headcanon that the guardians' emotional responses sometimes manifest in their elements. here cornelia is having an anxiety attack, so she causes an earthquake of sorts.

also: you know what always messed me up? calebs entire colour scheme is earth tones, and cornelia is the guardian of earth. comicverse caleb is literally a flower like and there is no convincing me that these two arent soulmates

anyway! once more, thank you for reading and i'd such a ball writing this. reviews make my heart happy, and feel free to hit me up any time. catch ya next time kiddies.

Big love,

A

xxxx


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